Weekly Daf #252

The Fast Bake

"Why do we eat this matza?" This is the rhetorical
question we ask at the Pesach Seder while saying the Haggada.

We answer by recalling the hurried departure of our ancestors
from Egypt: "They baked the dough which they took out of
Egypt into matzos, for it did not leaven into chametz, since they
were driven out of Egypt and could not tarry." (Shmos 12:39)

What would our ancestors have done had they been given more time?

There are two radically different approaches to this question.

Rabbeinu Nissim (RaN) writes in his commentary on our gemara
that they would have allowed it to become chametz and would have
baked it into bread. Although at Sinai we were forbidden to eat
or own chametz the entire seven days of Pesach, this first Pesach
took place before receiving the Torah at Sinai and had different
rules. The ban on eating chametz was limited to the first day
alone, and there was no ban on possessing chametz even on that
day. Had time allowed, they would have baked their dough into
loaves of bread which they could begin eating the day after their
Exodus.

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban), in his commentary on Chumash,
dismisses such an approach, because he contends that even on that
first Pesach it was forbidden for Jews to have chametz in their
possession. Had they been given more time, he concludes, they
would have baked matzos in the comfort of their homes, and transported
the finished product, rather than be compelled to carry out dough
which they could only bake in an improvised manner at their first
stop.

This approach raises the question of how they were able to avoid
the dough automatically becoming chametz when left unattended
for so long. Natural and miraculous explanations can be found
in the Midrash, the Targum of Yonasan ben Uziel and the commentaries
of Ohr Hachayim and Malbim.

(Pesachim 116b)

A Reward for the Reward

"Give thanks to Hashem for He is good, for His loving-kindness
is forever." (Tehillim 136:1) This is probably the
most familiar passage of the Hallel, which we say at the Seder
table and throughout Pesach and other Festivals. Rabbi Chisda
offers a fascinating perspective of Hashem's extraordinary graciousness
based on this passage.

When a Jew is loyal to Hashem, he is promised Divine protection
for his possessions. As the Torah says "No one will covet
your property when you go up to be seen before Hashem your G-d
three times a year (Shmos 34:24)." The Sage Issi
ben Yehuda explains this to mean that even though you are not
at home, your cow will safely graze with no wild beast attacking
it, and your chicken will rummage for its food with no cat threatening
it. (Pesachim 8b)

But when a Jew abandons his responsibility to observe the Torah
and has to be reminded of his duty, Hashem does not immediately
strike at his body or life. He sends his warning instead in the
form of withdrawing those material blessings which He has granted.
The rich man loses his ox, the poor man his sheep, the orphan
his egg and the widow her chicken. It is with the good that He
has given man that He enables man to achieve atonement for his
sins, and this is indeed an expression of magnificent lovingkindness.

Since it is obvious that it is Hashem's preference to bless man
with prosperity, we may gain a new insight, as Tiferes Yisrael
suggests, into the statement of the Sage Shimon ben Azai that
"the reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah" (Avos 4:2).
Since it is the Divine will to increase human prosperity as a
reward for obedience, the one who fulfills a mitzvah gets credit
not only for obedience but also for generating prosperity. The
converse is true of the sinner. "Retribution for a sin is
a sin" means that the sinner is held responsible for the
destruction of possessions necessitated by his sinful ways. In
this sense, the sinners are called "destroyers of the world"
(Avos 5:1) while the righteous are called "preservers
of the world (Ibid)."

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